June 27, 2015

By Andy Osborn. Dammit. Just when I thought the wave of new, interesting bands from Greece was dying down, this deadly duo had to appear. Both with new albums this year. Both bio-inclined, as it were. And both annihilating a genre many of us know has grown stale over the years. But despite all the similarities

Dammit. Just when I thought the wave of new, interesting bands from Greece was dying down, this deadly duo had to appear. Both with new albums this year. Both bio-inclined, as it were. And both annihilating a genre many of us know has grown stale over the years. But despite all the similarities, they’re different enough to offer two perspectives on the style and prove that when done right, thrash can be as powerful a force as it was 30 years ago.

Bio-Cancer are easily the more extreme of the two. They take what thrash was in its earliest form, a mishmash of all things deadly, and channels it into a modern, extreme form. And extremity is clearly the focus, as the album never relents and only grows more intense and blistering in pace.

The band as a whole is constantly firing on all cylinders and withering them into molten cores, but vocalist Lefteris is their weapon that’s the true force of destruction on Tormenting the Innocent. His insanity-driven, manic delivery is largely incomprehensible in the best way possible, as if possessed by a fire-spitting demon fighting to escape his body. The guitar attack is largely built of the promise of speed-infused, if not overly memorable, riffery. But they switch things up just enough to keep things interesting while staying firmly grounded in their trash attach. The hellish melodeath bridge in “Boxed Out” would make Kalmah proud, the cello intro to “F(r)iends or Fiends” soothes, and the blistering, grinding attack of “Haters Gonna… Suffer” is bewildering. The aforementioned title and contained Liam Neeson audio clip made me want to hate everything about that song, but it reminds me that grin-inducing, headbangable fun is the whole point of this type of music. I know what I’ll be drinking heavily to this summer.

While Biotoxic Warfare also stick to the extreme side of thrash, their attack is based on the battle plan forged by the likes of Kreator and Morbid Saint. Kicking off the album with a clear nod to a certain Slayer intro, it becomes immediately clear that they take the more traditional approach. Less insane and more predictable than Bio-Cancer, this is straight-up thrash for thrash lovers.

There’s little ground being broken by these sleeveless Cretians, but their worship is worthy. With a sense of groove and more sustainable tempo, this new quintet is making music more interesting and biting than any of the OG heroes still drudgingly putting out albums as they enter their fourth decade. The guitarists have the Hanneman-Kerry thing down pat, seamlessly trading off leads and solos and keeping the whole band on their toes. Re-thrash has been a four letter word for a while now, but Biotoxic Warfare prove that there’s still a healthy room for the classic sound done right.

June 24, 2015

By Justin C. I should have hated this album the first time I listened to it. It was a Monday morning, I'd slept poorly, and on top of being on my way to work late on a day I needed to get a lot done, I discovered too late that I had a hole in my shirt. I was somewhere between Charlie Brown and the guy in Munch's "The Scream" in terms of mood

By Justin C.

Cover art by Paolo Girardi

I should have hated this album the first time I listened to it. It was a Monday morning, I'd slept poorly, and on top of being on my way to work late on a day I needed to get a lot done, I discovered too late that I had a hole in my shirt. I was somewhere between Charlie Brown and the guy in Munch's "The Scream" in terms of mood, which would normally call for some steering wheel-punching, shouting-at-other-drivers blackened metal, not creeping doom. I needed to get fired up, not droned out, but for whatever reason, I queued up Bell Witch's Four Phantoms. Imagine my surprise when instead of bumming me out, I was rolling on a wave of staggeringly good doom.

I liked Bell Witch's last one, Longing, just fine, but I was in no way prepared for the huge leap forward they'd take on Four Phantoms. All of the usual metal writer cliches fail here. It's ridiculous to call this music "face ripping" or "gut punching" or "toe severing" or anything else of that ilk. I struggled to think of the proper metaphor, but the second track on the album, "Judgement, In Fire: I - Garden (of Blooming Ash)" (the band's punctuation is as dense as their music on this one), finally gave me clarity: The opening percussion explosions in the song are the volcano eruptions, and the bass and vocals are the slowly seeping lava. You can't set a metronome low enough for most of these tempos, but the flow of the music will pull you along regardless.

The songcraft is excellent here, which is saying a lot for an album whose shortest track is over 10 minutes and whose longest track is pushing 23 minutes. That's a lot of space to fill and a lot of places for boredom to creep in, especially with music at such glacial speeds, but I never get bored. The vocals range from understated cleans to deep growls, and the bass, which straddles both rhythm and melody, shows just how melodic you can be on an instrument that usually hides in the shadows. Listen to the opening strains of "Suffocation, a Drowning" or the vocal harmonies about 6 minutes in and tell me you don't get chills. I dare you. The drums are minimalistic, but offer the perfect backbone to this meditative music.

As I've said in other reviews, if you play music this slow and with parts this naked and vulnerable, you have to squeeze every drop of musicality out of every note. You can't hide behind a wall of effects or technicality, and damn, Bell Witch makes every note count. There's not a throwaway moment on this album, and given some of the bloated beasts you find in underground metal these days, what higher praise can you give? Plenty of people have already talked about this album, and I'm shamefully late to the party, but if you blew this off because you usually like something more frenetic, I urge you to give it a try.

June 23, 2015

By Ulla Roschat. With their first full length album Old Wood & Broken Dreams (2014) Atlanta based sludge trio Crawl delivers a chunk of sludge metal that is deeply rooted in southern tradition. It’s bluesy, swampy, heavy, with a thick and sticky atmosphere infused with the smell of whiskey and weed

With their first full length album Old Wood & Broken Dreams (2014) Atlanta based sludge trio Crawl delivers a chunk of sludge metal that is deeply rooted in southern tradition. It’s bluesy, swampy, heavy, with a thick and sticky atmosphere infused with the smell of whiskey and weed, executed with a laid back attitude, still destructive as hell.

The album starts with a short instrumental intro track "Crack Tea" and sets the mood with fuzzy blues ridden stoner riffs that hint at the heaviness yet to come. And with each following song, the album gathers intensity and heaviness. The second song “Don’t Kid Me” begins with warm acoustic sounds that soon get wrapped in droney distortion, the next one "Pilldust", again an instrumental track and one of the two longer songs (11:33) on the album, adds hypnotic, minimalistic rhythms that build into doom riffs to finally merge into a psyched out stoner jam.

The Buzzov•en cover "Useless" brings yet another quality of intensity to the album. The vocals here are charged with an extra portion of filth and brutality - a well made new dress for this classic. The longest track “Nigredo” (12:35) uses its time to carefully create massive heavy sludge riffs that evolve from a driving desert-y groove. A quiet ambient "neurosis-like" second part with clean vocals carries the song slowly back to its beginning with a spaced out version of its initial rhythm. A variety of moods and dynamics are in here to enjoy.

And the last track "3 A.M. and a Loaded Gun" is the darkest and most depressive one. The otherwise omnipresent and dominant bluesy, swampy sludge gets twisted here into a cold, bleak kind of sludge, infected with industrial noise, charged with crackling electricity.

Old Wood & Broken Dreams is six songs of traditional southern swamp sludge, soaked in muddy blues and drone sounds, heavy and destructive, but subtly flavoured with stoner grooves, HC beats, psycho rhythms and quiet acoustic parts, blended into the mix in such a skillful way that all comes out pretty organic and contributes to the overall laid back feeling and the high tension dynamics as well… as if this weren’t a contradiction at all.

June 21, 2015

Hey, Check This Out is meant to be an irregular column of DIY reviews, presenting just the basic facts about albums that we wanted to give a full review but for some reason it never happened. First up is 3 very different bands from USA. Enjoy. Band: Replacire. City: Boston, Massachusetts.

Hey, Check This Out is meant to be an irregular column of DIY reviews, presenting just the basic facts about albums that we wanted to give a full review but for some reason it never happened. First up is 3 very different bands from USA. Enjoy.

June 18, 2015

By Kevin Page. Upon hearing that famed guitar duo, Sol Faur and Hupogrammos, formed Sunset in the 12th House, I was all in. How can the original masterminds behind Negura Bunget and (currently) Dordeduh, not get you excited? They are joined by fellow Dordeduh drummer Sergio Ponti and bassist Mihai Moldoveanu

By Kevin Page.

Upon hearing that famed guitar duo, Sol Faur and Hupogrammos, formed Sunset in the 12th House, I was all in. How can the original masterminds behind Negura Bunget and (currently) Dordeduh, not get you excited? They are joined by fellow Dordeduh drummer Sergio Ponti and bassist Mihai Moldoveanu (Beat Bang!, JazzyBIT) here on their debut album, Mozaic, 57 minutes of unmeasurable beauty.

The band describes their sound in a very general sense as psychedelic post rock and traditional oriental music. While I agree you can consider that a starting point, it goes way beyond that. Yes, it has some chuggy driving guitars at times, but nothing too crazy. You'll also hear progressive rock and metal. But what really makes Mozaic shine is the ethereal underlay always omnipresent, whether lurking in background or commanding center stage. The depth it brings to the music cannot be understated. Combine all that with the gentle upbeat picking of the guitars and it really is something to behold.

I know prog rock/metal can be very self indulgent (at least to my ears) and many bands get caught up in guitar wankery. Thankfully, none of that exists here. Everything is done tastefully with no fat to trim anywhere. These songs exist in their own time and space.

At the end of the day, what really makes this album stand out and cement itself as a supreme piece of music are those moments you can point to in each song and say "there, right there, THAT gives me chills". The simple fact that I can pinpoint this in each song is a testament to what an achievement the band has accomplished.

(have a listen for yourself).

The first 2 1/2 minutes of "Seven Insignia".

The 2:50 mark of "Arctic Cascades", gentle upbeat picking of the guitar.

The 6:05 mark of "Paraphernalia of Sublimation" and again at 8:05.

The 1:30 mark of "Desert's Eschaton".

The beginning of "Ethereal Consonance".

The 1:58 mark of "Rejuvenation", the only song to features any vocals (and they happen to be of the harsh variety).

June 16, 2015

By Matt Hinch. I like to think that False named their band thusly as a big middle finger to all the agoraphobic pimple-farmers who actually give a shit about trooness. I couldn't give a rat's ass where a band is from or

I like to think that False named their band thusly as a big middle finger to all the agoraphobic pimple-farmers who actually give a shit about trooness. I couldn't give a rat's ass where a band is from or how lo-fi their production is, or whether or not they use keyboards. Okay, maybe I do care about keys but if I like them I like them. And in the context of False, I like them.

As opposed to other, more symphonic bands False know how to utilize the keyboards in a way that compliments the bleak, raging black metal without ever trying to dominate the sound. Those times when the keys do find their way up in the mix are done with purpose and don't overstay their welcome. So when it comes to Untitled (the LP not the EP) it becomes difficult to articulate the glorious majesty the band displays. This release feels more focused (despite epic lengths), more determined, more driven by the cold fire that burns remorselessly into your very soul.

Swarming across your senses for a hour Untitled's main tone is one of abject desperation and helplessness. Like it needs to escape. It is always in motion, whether that's through furious tremolos or shifting into doomier movement depends on the moment in time. A time which stops completely when False are given the focus they so richly deserve.

As a good opening track should “Saturnalia” encapsulates all the elements that go into the whole album. The manic black metal kicks in hard and early with subtle keyboard washes turning a little bizarre, eventually setting the mood as the track slows to a crawl and the guitars give the keys room to breathe. “Saturnalia” eventually rises from those doldrums (atmospherically speaking) on an even more windswept path. One can feel the power and fight but also a painful intensity that carries into the other four tracks.

“The Deluge” continues the bleak and chaotic journey with ruthless rhythms yet at times switches from straight-line determination to an almost jaunty feel, like moments of clarity, or rather, the innocence of insanity temporarily dragging you to untold depths of despair and loathing.

The final two tracks “Entropy” and “Hedgecraft” clock in as the longest with the former breaching 15 minutes. It has an easier lead in but still rages as hard as any. It's also one instance of the use of choral vocals, as well as stunning riffs appearing out of nowhere to confound the listener with their ability to not only flatten soundscapes but also build them up.

The seed of anguish and helplessness is injected deep on “Hedgecraft” with razor-sharp tremolos needling into soft flesh. It's by far the most emotional track. The haunting melodies lurking like shadows in contrast to the phenomenal and frantic percussion are enough to bring one to tears. For all that however it's also bloodthirsty and terrifying. Here, as in general, the emotional weight is held by the instruments but the vocals, however indecipherable, are essential. The reptilian rasps grip like talons around the now completely exposed listener, ready to rip their head off and drink of their flowing essence.

The way the track builds into a heartbreaking and complete catharsis is near overwhelming. Everything comes together in a dense ball of bass-led intensity only to instantaneously unravel and drift into atoms.

Untitled leaves the listener spent but in a state of black metal bliss. Anyone who's followed the Minnesotans already know what they are capable of and False more than deliver to expectations. Melody, atmosphere, menace, speed, turmoil and compelling songcraft position False as leaders in the USBM scene and Untitled as one of 2015's black metal victories.

June 13, 2015

Being a latecomer to metal means there's so many classic albums I haven't yet heard. Now another one, Nocturnus - The Key from 1990, has just been released on the Earache Records Bandcamp. Generally hailed as one of the first death metal albums that added keyboards to the mix, but also for the unusual "occult meets sci-fi" theme

Being a latecomer to metal means there's so many classic albums I haven't yet heard. Now another one, Nocturnus - The Key from 1990, has just been released on the Earache Records Bandcamp. Generally hailed as one of the first death metal albums that added keyboards to the mix, but also for the unusual "occult meets sci-fi" theme and its stunning technicality. Album downloaded - me and my trusty headphones are ready to dig in!

Back in November 2012 Earache opened their Bandcamp page with a modest 5 albums. Back then Islander from No Clean Singing ran this piece featuring his wishlist of albums to be added. Fast forward to now, most of Islander's wishes have been granted, and the page now sports a respectable 64 albums. But my contact at Earache is still taking requests (yes, I asked for Nocturnus), so let me know in the comments section: Which classic Earache albums should I hear? And which ones do you want to see on the page?

June 10, 2015

By Ulla Roschat. It’s no secret that I am “fan extreme” of Nightslug from Düsseldorf/Germany. I’m addicted to their special brand of sludge since their first demo from 2011. I called it "the epitome of sludge" and their first full length album Dismal Fucker from 2013 truly lived up to that title.

It’s no secret that I am “fan extreme” of Nightslug from Düsseldorf/Germany. I’m addicted to their special brand of sludge since their first demo from 2011. I called it "the epitome of sludge" and their first full length album Dismal Fucker from 2013 truly lived up to that title. Now the band is back with their second full length album Loathe. If its predecessor was the apocalyptic nightmare, the demonic roller coaster ride, Loathe is the apocalypse itself and the demons unsheathe their terror from their ugly faces, pour their nihilistic hate and disgust through your speakers all over you.

Nightslug's unmistakable style of a nasty, heavy, HC tinged sludge, that’s so heavenly abrasive and filthy, is as destructive as always. This time they add even more noise and industrial flavor than they did on their first album. On Loathe everything is permeated by it. The reverberating distorted vocals sound like the last trace left of humanity, drowning in an avalanche of this bleak industrial noise. The song structures are straightforward (reminiscent of their demo songs), and make everything raw, violent, heavy, thick and add more destructive energy and bleakness.

With Loathe, once again, Nightslug bless us with their vicious ferocity and filth that seem to emanate directly from hell.

June 8, 2015

By Andy Osborn. One of the things we pride ourselves on here at Metal Bandcamp is discovering and promoting lesser-known music. And over the years I’ve made it a point to write almost exclusively about independent groups I thought were deserving of a much wider audience.

"Because the world is perfidious, I am going into mourning" / Pieter Bruegel - The Misanthrope

One of the things we pride ourselves on here at Metal Bandcamp is discovering and promoting lesser-known music. And over the years I’ve made it a point to write almost exclusively about independent groups I thought were deserving of a much wider audience. Well, today I’m excited to share with you my all time favorite Bandcamp discovery. Stumbling onto this page was like wandering into an undiscovered cave filled to the brim with esoteric and otherworldly riches. Its walls charred black, naturally.

Kognitiv Tod is the project of Illinois-based multi-instrumentalist Mitchell Provow, started in 2014. Shortly after I devoured his first full-length, Mysteries, a second one appeared on his page. And then another. And then another. Now, just a year after his first release, Kognitiv Tod boasts an impressive five albums full of material. But instead of the standard one-man bedroomgaze one would expect from this type of project, Mitchell’s recordings are something else entirely.

His brand of blackened, experimental metal is wholly singular and unlike anything I have ever heard. Fans of Horseback and Jute Gyte’s music will definitely connect with Kognitiv Tod, but those comparisons hardly do this project justice.

I could go on and on about each album in detail, but I would be remiss to write about all five releases without some further context. To make sense of it all I got ahold of the man behind the madness via email to help us understand his process, inspiration, and endless creative drive.

How did the idea for Kognitiv Tod come about? Have you been making music and involved in bands for a while?

I used to experiment writing music when I was really young and played in some bands in junior high and high school, just messing around. I played guitar in the jazz band in high school. Then for many years I did almost nothing with music (except listen to a lot of it). I always sort of knew that I wanted to create music, but there were so many barriers holding me back like pressure to have a job and support myself. I had mentally walled myself in and stifled myself away from it out of fear and ignorance I suppose. I was doing everything like a normal person would and having success, but I was extremely unhappy and unfulfilled. In 2014 I had a sort of creative awakening that is hard to explain. I came to the conclusion that I could make music all by myself, without having to depend on anyone else. I wrote a few things and was excited by them and this provided the momentum to continue. My desires and ideas about life changed and I realized that creativity was the most important thing in my life and that other aspirations that most people would probably think are very important, suddenly were no longer important.

How would you describe your music? The only reference point I can really think of is the work of Jenks Miller who also does a type of experimental, southern-fried black metal.

It’s difficult for me to describe. It is a combination of all the music that has been very meaningful to me. I saw someone once call it "Blackened Psychedelic Metal" but even that is ambiguous and not very definitive. I like to think in terms of artists I’m imitating. I think the original conception was to create something like Burzum mixed with early John Frusciante i.e. To Record Only Water for Ten Days. These two artists have probably influenced me more than anyone else and I think subconsciously they fostered the primary impetus behind my music.

You released your first album in May 2014 and just over a year later you already have four more full-lengths. What allows you to be so prolific?

I write, record and produce all the music myself. I do this at home, without having to rely on anyone else. This affords me a really free creative process that isn’t contingent upon other people in any shape or form. I don’t have to pay and wait for studio time. I don’t have to wait to meet with other people to write. I don’t have to take time to perform. This eliminates major obstacles that I think are responsible for the one album a year dogma. I feel most fulfilled when I’m writing and creating. It’s always on my mind. I’m always thinking about what I’m going to do next. This type of creative mode, total self reliance, is very nurturing to the creative process.

While your music as a whole has a very recognizable sound, each album comes with its own distinct charm and mood. Do you start creating each release with a set idea or concept in mind?

I try to go in new directions with each album. The worst thing I can think of is to stagnate and release the same material in different dress album after album. However, there hasn’t been a lot of conscious decision on how to evolve. The changes seem to be very subconscious, and directly influenced by what I’m most actively listening to at the time. My most current release was heavily influenced by the bass work of artists like Eric Avery from Jane’s Addiction and Peter Hook from Joy Division. I was listening to these two bands quite a lot while writing The Nightmare of Being. It’s the first album I played bass guitar on. Howls From The Void features synth bass and my first three albums have no bass at all. I was inspired by how Joy Division and Jane’s Addiction wrote music centered around the bass, and were much deeper with the instrument than most "rock" bass players. Every song on The Nightmare of Being was composed on bass, with the guitar parts added afterwards.

Frederic Remington - Moonlight, Wolf

When I listen to your music I hear a sense of continuity, there are certain patterns and ideas within your arrangements that keep recurring. Not sure if this makes sense but when I listen to it I feel like I’m wandering around in an M.C. Escher painting.

I’ve taken a lot of songwriting elements directly from John Frusciante, as he was somebody I copied constantly while learning to play the guitar as a kid. I loved the way he would juxtapose his guitar with synthesizer. His early release, Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt as well as To Record Only Water… changed the way I viewed musical production. The former being done on a four track. This had a major impact on me aesthetically and changed how I viewed production and musical atmosphere. The first Burzum album I heard was Filosofem and it had an effect equally as powerful. I had never heard anything like it. I was so awestruck and I fell in love immediately. This was the second turn in my life that changed how I viewed musical aesthetics and production. I owe much of my influence to both of these artists.

Your Bandcamp page shows you’re inspired by literature new and old. Is the music you write directly inspired by the books you are consuming at that time period?

In hindsight, I associate different creative periods by what I’m reading. When I wrote Mysteries, I had just finished Knut Hamsun’s Hunger and Mysteries. I read the former while simultaneously listening to Judas Iscariot’s Heaven in Flames on repeat. This created the mood and impetus for the album I think. I think literature can have a major impact on music. I wrote A Will to Suffer while reading Michael Houellebecq’s The Possibility of an Island and Thomas Ligotti’s The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. Naturally, I was thinking a lot about transhumanism and philosophical pessimism at the time. I think all of this somehow unconsciously colors the music I write in ways I probably don’t understand. It certainly inspires me lyrically in a more direct way.

The striking artwork, for me at least, plays a central role in Kognitiv Tod. It’s clear you carefully choose each piece to reflect the work. Can you expand on a couple examples and why you chose those pieces?

I browse through a lot of artwork when deciding on album covers. I know what the album cover is going to be as soon as I see it. It just hits me and I know it. Bruegel’s The Misanthrope I think really embodied the color and mood of where I was at mentally and creatively around the time of composing Mysteries. Composing this weird black metal all alone by yourself at 2am in the rural midwest, one certainly feels misanthropic. Not in any cliched sort of way, but a real, in your bones separation from the rest of the world. I think any artist feels this sort of separation, and I think any artist’s best work is often done alone. Being separate is essential to the creative process. Otto Rank wrote extensively about this. Howls From The Void’s artwork is a piece by Frederic Remington. I was reading a lot of Laird Barron at the time, as well as Houellebecq. The wolf just stuck out at me as this entity alone in an indifferent cosmos. I felt it really embodied the album. That artwork has a cosmologically deep feel to it, and it’s considerably darker and heavier than any of Remington’s other work.

I’ve always considered Kognitiv Tod my favorite “unknown” Bandcamp discovery. What are some of yours?

Thank you. Honestly, you probably know a lot more artists than I do. I haven’t spent a lot of time browsing Bandcamp discovering other artists, which is unfortunate. It is such a vast resource I’m almost overwhelmed by it. I plan to take further advantage of this.

What are your plans for the future?

I plan to release one more album in 2015. I have some material I’m working on. Right now I’m taking a short break from writing music while I’m reading David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. I think I’ll continue to write and record and release music as long as I’m alive. I can’t imagine not doing it. I hope to continue to evolve and grow as an artist and am excited to see what direction all this goes. I very much don’t feel in control of the creative growth and evolution, and I really like that.

June 6, 2015

By Calen Henry. Monolord sell a patch with a picture of a divine hand reaching out of the clouds to press the switch on a foot pedal simply labeled “FUZZ”. That image sums up their first record, Empress Rising a fuzz manifesto commanding doomheads take notice and feel their bone shaking riffs, right from the first fuzz drop.

Monolord sell a patch with a picture of a divine hand reaching out of the clouds to press the switch on a foot pedal simply labeled “FUZZ”. That image sums up their first record, Empress Rising; a fuzz manifesto commanding doomheads take notice and feel their bone shaking riffs, right from the first fuzz drop. Underneath the fuzz though and the absolutely killer riffs ran a strong psychedelic undercurrent emphasized by echo drenched vocals.

Vænir shows the same band coming into their own a bit, having already shown their devotion to the Riff and the Fuzz, the two stoner doom gods. The riffs are still stunning, and the vocals remain largely unchanged but the band isn’t afraid to shake things up a bit. They’re less obsessed with crushing tone and have crafted a more varied record with lots going on. The songs meander through riffs and themes rather than hypnotically droning the same few massive riffs (there’s still lots of that though). It makes for a more varied and somewhat pleasant listen, not quite as crushing as Empress Rising, but with more to reward repeated listens.

The result is not unlike Pallbearer’s Foundations of Burden; an undeniably mature sophomore release that leaves the first record as a still compelling statement of intent. Like Foundations of Burden, though, the maturity causes the band to tread closer to sounding like other doom bands. The use of semitones, and increased variety makes Vænir sound closer to Black Sabbath than Empress Rising did. That is by no means a criticism, though, merely an observation.

Vænir shows that Monolord are the real deal. They got everyone’s attention with the massive Empress Rising and Vænir shows they’ve still got lots to say echo-drenched, incomprehensible, and difficult to discern over the massive riffs though it may be.

June 4, 2015

By Justin C. Paris-based duo Dragunov has put out an excellent instrumental EP called 637. The longest song on the EP is 6:37, and the shortest song on the EP is also 6:37. Keen students of mathematics will have figured out

By Justin C.

Paris-based duo Dragunov has put out an excellent instrumental EP called 637. The longest song on the EP is 6:37, and the shortest song on the EP is also 6:37. Keen students of mathematics will have figured out by this point that ALL five tracks are exactly 6:37 long. Tristan, the drummer, explained to me that they hadn't intended to make this a 6:37-concept album, but when the first couple of songs ended up the same length, they decided to go for it. I didn't even notice it at first, which is a little embarrassing, but on the other hand, it's a good thing from a musical perspective. If I'm not having moments of "This song is tooooo loooooong" or "I wish they'd explored this idea more", then I know the music is in that sweet spot of holding my interest completely.

The band self-describes their music as "garage post-metal", which I think is pretty apt. It has the kind of dissonant riffing and wide dynamics you might expect from post-metal, but the guitar sound is dirty and crunchy, and they're not afraid to go for simple-but-effective riffing, as demonstrated in the beginning of the second track, "Adin". "Adin" also demonstrates how effective the musical basics can be when done right. A sample in the middle of the song is accompanied by sustained guitar chords and a pulsing drum beat that quiets and swells. A lot of bands in the post-metal world rely on a simpler formula of quiet-LOUD-quiet-LOUD to break up the music, but it's easy to forget how much a subtle ebbing and flowing in dynamics can add to the musicality of a song.

The songs on this EP are always full of motion. The band doesn't bother with conventional song structure, but they don't devolve into chaos, either. The riffs are catchy, but the duo never grinds them into the ground with over-repetition. And their sense of dynamics is far from the only tool they use from the musical toolbox. Midway through "Tchetyre", we get a fantastic little alternating-note riff that eventually explodes into a more furious variation. Album closer "Piatt" has some great call-and-response sections, with a distant-sounding guitar leading off with an idea, followed by full-bore explosion based on the same idea. This all leads up to a fantastic, sawing riff that plays the EP out.

I haven't seen much mention of this band outside from a post from our brethren over at No Clean Singing, but 637 is a gem of instrumental goodness that deserves much wider recognition.